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Daniels interview transcript: Part 1

Purdue University, Mitch Daniels, Purdue Boilermakers
Mitch Daniels was our special guest on Gold and Black LIVE. Chick here and scroll down the page to watch the entire interview plus a segment with Dr. Will Miller.

The following is an excerpt of the first of two segments of our interview with Mitch Daniels Gold and Black LIVE' from the president's office in Hovde Hall on Thursday (March 26).

GoldandBlack.com: In these difficult times I think it's important that we have people that can inspire us and also lead us and that's a big role for a guy like you right now.

President Mitch Daniels: Everybody's got a role to play here. Alan, you do too. Thanks for coming by to do this. This just confirms what Purdue sports fans have always known, that Gold and Black is on that list of truly essential services. Critical as we say, so glad you're glad you're still at it.

GoldandBlack.com: Give us a little bit of an update on how online learning is going for Purdue students.

Daniels: Maybe more smoothly than we expected. Now, more problems I'm sure will crop up but we're in our fourth day now. We’ve had very few complaints of any serious glitches.

It was an astonishing job (of preparation) by our faculty, there’s more than 5000 courses were adapted. They use their spring break last week to do it in almost every case. It’s really remarkable. Yesterday 40,000 students logged into our so-called learning system. That basically means everybody's studying and everybody's engaged. So it’s really, really terrific.

We're pressing ahead today we're announcing, I'll just break the news here, we're going to have an on-demand commencement. We, Purdue University, I think indisputably has the best commencements of any school our size. Every student gets honored individually.

We're so disappointed that we're not able to do that this year. So our folks are working on another way to do it. We'll be announcing that today but those who want to can celebrate somewhere else remotely with friends and loved ones and be part of the ceremony through a remote beat.

GoldandBlack.com: That's such a big part of what this is all about. The attitude of folks. People are doing what they need to do here (to be healthy). I've noticed that pretty pervasively around the around our community.

Daniels: Absolutely. I think one day, and I hope before too long, we'll see some positives out of this. Nobody's going to be glad it happened. I mean, we're all going to enjoy little things more. I'm not calling sports a little thing, but boy, can you imagine how much fun it'll be when we're all able to get back to the ball yard aka Ross-Ade or wherever we are? So I'm very impressed with the way Americans and certainly people around here have taken this in stride and sometimes the worst, the circumstances, bring out the best in people.

GoldandBlack.com: You sent a video announcement to students on Sunday night right before the remote learning started. What have you drawn from leadership positions of your past to deliver the right message forward to students?

Daniels: I think first of all, if there's any kind of student of history, which I've tried to be, or if you've lived long, I've had certain experiences that provide some perspective. I mean, we will get through this. I think that helps you keep a little sense of balance.

If you have an assignment like the one I have right now, you have a little special responsibility to, on the one hand, maintain people's spirits. Try to share the confidence that you do feel that we'll solve our problems and we’ll emerge, but at the same time deal straight with people. I think there's also a responsibility. (One has to) make certain, and by the way, and this is why media is critical.

You (Gold and Black) absolutely belong on that list. Because public understanding, especially in this situation, where we've all got a direct involvement and a direct role to play, public understanding of the competing interests, and the medical facts is really important. I think some media have done a good job of that, some not so good. It's a responsibility we all share.

GoldandBlack.com: What is on your daily calendar as you work your way through this?

Daniels: It's been ironic and interesting to me. On the one hand, every day brings a host of calls and decisions and improvisations. We start every early every morning at this (conference room) table with the people who have responsibility whether it's on the academic side, the public safety side, the health and welfare side; all the people we need. Then we break and act on the decisions we've made.

Now at the same time, my whole calendar emptied out. There aren't any games to go to, there aren't any meetings on campus. The speeches I was supposed to give, the travel I was supposed to do, it's all gone away. And so actually, I don't want to say I have time on my hands, but there is more time than I'm used to to think about things and try to (determine) If we're making the right call in view of all the factors that you may have to balance. I'll be glad when there's not time to cogitate but for now the problem we're not having is not having enough hours in the day.

GoldandBlack.com: It's an opportunity to evaluate and fine tune some things?

Daniels: Yeah, you hope so. The adversity does reveal a lot of things. What's the old saying about teabags and quarterbacks? You don't know how good they are until you see them in hot water.

I'll just tell you that the people of Purdue, overwhelmingly, whether they're in leadership capacities or the newest member of the staff have stepped up to this and they've done those things that they know are wise, know are necessary, and helped each other where that's compatible with the new rules. So far so good

GoldandBlack.com: What's been your message to Mike Bobinski during this difficult time?

Daniels: The same message that we have to give really to all our leaders: deans or research leaders, others (that) stare reality in the face,: (That message is) Don't kid yourself. Have a plan for the worst case anticipating, and I do anticipate the worst cases are not really likely to eventually happen here.

Mike has some very special issues. His revenue It's so dependent and is more or less the same position of our friends at the Triple XXX and Hilton Garden Inn (for example).

I was on a call with the other Big Ten presidents this morning. We've been doing that occasionally (during the crisis). We know that TV money that was in everybody's budget is now going to shrink dramatically. We were getting an update as to what that might mean. So Mike is planning for these things.

One positive, unlike a lot of businesses, we're not reliant on the summer. Now we need practice time for football and there was discussion of that (topic) this morning about when that could start again. If we're able to play football and get fall sports started on time, I think we'll be all right. Thank goodness we've got a great leader and manager in Mike to get us through it.

GoldandBlack.com: Is it realistic to think that football is going to be played in Ross-Ade (in September?

Daniels: I don’t know. I'd love to tell you yes. I can see scenarios where that's the case. I think we'll all know a lot more literally in the next few weeks. We have to determine when we’ve gotten to that point where the health infrastructure has had time to build up enough with own stockpiles of masks and gloves and things.

So as the healthcare infrastructure gets to some point of readiness, and we learn more about how many people really are going to have a severe problem with this virus--it's very clear that a huge percentage that have it may not even know they have it--we just need to understand the pandemic better than we do.

But I think in a few weeks as a society will have to decide when the cost of control are beginning to exceed the benefits that we're trying to create with them. And then I think we can give you a better forecast in about three or four months from now.

GoldandBlack.com What role do you see student-athletes playing as this continues to unfold?

Daniels: Well, they set a good example all the time. And I don't doubt when we have them back with us, they will do that. They'll probably be doing that for a good long while in the way they'll probably have to adapt their training and maybe even game day activities in some fashion that will be very visible to the rest of us and remind everybody what we're supposed to be doing at that time.

As I said before, if we think going to Purdue games was fun before, but when we've been deprived of it for two or three or months or whatever it is. We're going to enjoy every minute of it like we never have.

GoldandBlack.com: What do you what do you want to see out of coaches like Jeff Brohm, Dave Shondell, Matt Painter, and Sharon Versyp in this in this process?

Daniels: The same leadership they display year in season in season out; the same character. Of course I'm partial but I'm hardly the only person that thinks there's a special character in the people you just named. You just named four outstanding coaches who also have impeccable conduct who expect it of players and get it from their players.

We're all being asked to conduct ourselves in a way that's respectful of others, and follow the necessary rules. Hey, that's Purdue sports. So I don't know where you'd find better models than Matt, Sharon and Jeff, Dave and the rest of the coaching staff(s).

GoldandBlack.com: How is COVID-19 going to affect not only higher ed, but also big time college sports long term?

Daniels: I don't know exactly on what pace but in both those contexts, you just asked about higher ed generally and let's talk about Division I sports in particular. They were already real pressures and challenges. Public confidence in higher ed has been a sharp decline way before any of us could spell COVID. The cost of it was coming under so much scrutiny in many places. Meanwhile, distance learning was beginning to grow. People were saying maybe there are other ways to do this that are less expensive and more flexible for people. So all that was going on, and now we have this issue, which I think is going to accelerate all these changes.

I'm sorry to say, but we've been losing dozen or two dozen schools a year any way in America, we're going to lose some more over this. I just don't see any other outcome now.

I can remember saying this when we hit a tough patch during my Eli Lilly days. I can remember saying this to the state of Indiana when the "Great Recession: hit and so forth: Tough times do separate.

The more abled and more adaptive, the more capable and competitive from others, and this is true whether you're in sports or in life. (is important to success). What we can do at this institution is try to conduct ourselves in a way that on the backside of this, we're in at least as good a shape as we were going in; maybe even better. That is possible to do.

With regard to athletics, the model was under so much pressure anyway. Here came name, image likeness, pay-for-play type ideas that were already a threat to the Division 1 world we've known.

If we're not able to put fans in stands for a while, I think there'll have to be some real reset of some of the cost structure. Is that coaches salaries? I don't know. You know where the money tends to get spent. Here too, I think we already we're headed in a challenging direction. This (crisis) is just going speed it up.

Note: We will post a transcript of Part 2 of the interview on Friday.


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